Dania Maxwell/Staff
Director of South Florida Wildlands Association Matthew Schwartz, center, representing himself speaks during a state administrative hearing regarding a proposed Golden Gate Estates oil well on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014 at the DEP offices in Fort Myers, Fla. Dan A. Hughes Co., a Beeville, Texas-Based oil company, wants to erect an exploratory drilling well on leased land. The proposed football-field sized site received a permit in September. The petition is asking Judge D. R. Alexander to put the permit aside until the Big Cypress Swamp Advisory Committee has a chance to look at the permit.

A resident who lives near a proposed exploratory oil well site in Golden Gate Estates said the Dan A. Hughes Co. shrunk the radius of households that would be notified in the event of a release of toxic gas to exclude him, after he questioned the effects of the project.

The testimony came during the third and final day of state hearings in Fort Myers on a proposed oil well in Golden Gate Estates.

The resident, Thomas Moser, other Golden Gate Estates residents and a wildlife advocate are challenging a DEP permit issued in September to the Beesville, Texas-based Hughes Co. to drill an exploratory well near 24th Avenue Southeast and Desoto Boulevard.

Moser, a technical writer who owns a home about 2,500 feet from the proposed drilling site, as well as a nearby wooded lot, expressed his concern about his own health, as well as that of his family and neighbors, should the well emit toxic hydrogen sulfide gas.

Testimony in previous days indicated such a release could have potentially deadly consequences for people and wildlife, though witnesses for the oil company described the possibility of such a release as unlikely.

Moser said that while he lives within a mile of the site, and was included in the original contingency plan the oil company produced, he was knocked off the list when the plan was revised earlier this year.

He said the action happened after he had made numerous inquiries to the DEP and the Hughes Co. about the safety of the well.

He also contended that the company's original plan, which listed 31 residents within a mile of the well, didn't list all residents in the area. His own research showed more than 80 residents lived within that radius.

He added that in the company's revised contingency plan, the radius of people who would be notified in the event of a hydrogen sulfide release was reduced to within 2,000 feet of the well.

The new plan listed only five households, but excluded his.

Moser's petition says "accepted industry standards" include notifying, warning, evacuating and providing protective respirators to all persons within the radius of exposure. Moser became so concerned about "the health and safety of my health and my neighbors" that he took an online hydrogen sulfide certification course that took about four hours.

Still, he said, since he has received no information from the DEP, the Hughes Co. or its agents about what he should do in the event of a release, he's not sure what he would do if an alarm went off at the drill site.

"I wouldn't know what it means," he said.

In previous day's testimony, DEP geologist Steve Spencer, who approved the contested drilling permit in September, said he had not had practical experience at a hydrogen sulfide release site and had allowed his hydrogen sulfide certification expire.

Other witnesses from the morning's hearings testified that the well would harm the endangered panther's shrinking habitat, and reduce the enjoyment of those who like to live among them.

Don Loritz, vice president of Preserve our Paradise, a non-profit established to protect the environment in Southwest Florida, said the contingency plan was "insufficient and inadequate" to protect panthers and other wildlife who would be disturbed by the noise, lights, odors and other aspects of building a drilling site.

Wildlife advocate Matthew Schwartz, executive director of Fort Lauderdale-based South Florida Wildlands Association, said he calculates building the roadbed to the well pad would require trucking in 14,000 cubic yards of material. He said since a dump truck only carries between 5 and 20 cubic yards of material, just that aspect alone of creating the drill site would be unacceptably disruptive.

"Never mind what it would take to bring in pipes, pumps, toilets and everything else," he said.

He also criticized the DEP for not requiring the Hughes Co. to take more steps to mitigate the effects on panthers, for instance, by banning drilling at night when panthers are most active.

He also called on the DEP to consider water quality when it reviews the contested permit.

"If diesel or some other fluid should escape, where would it go?" he asked.

Lawyers for the Hughes Co. pointed out that the proposed pad would be surrounded by a ditch and berm that would contain any leaked fluids.

But that didn't satisfy Schwartz, who thought it would be too easy for contaminants to breech the berm — and the consequences would be dire if they did.

"We're dealing with some of the most pristine wetlands in Florida," he said.

D.R. Alexander, the state administrative judge overseeing the hearings, will now make recommendations to the DEP, which will decide the fate of the permit. The process could take several months, he said.